Artisan’s Key: Allows you to roll a die and on a 4+ use the Boneshaper’s ability twice. For reference, the boneshaper’s ability heals 3 wounds within 6″ or resurrect a model with 3 wounds or less within a unit. You can either use it on a second unit or the same unit. This is ridiculously good and helps keep units and heroes topped off. The Bonereapers get more RDP than other armies receive CP. At the start of each Battle Round they receive one RDP for each Hero, one for each Liege, three if the Mortarch Katakros is the army’s general and on the field, plus one for taking the first turn in the round and two for taking the second.

Ancient Knowledge: Identical to the Kavalos version, gain 1 additional relentless discipline point.Command Trait: Katakros’ Chosen –Once per battle gain D3 Relentless Discipline points. A bit of a downer, since its once per game and you could get garbage. The stalkers changed very little, and that’s a good thing. Like the Immortis Guard, they got boosted to 5 wounds, and their special weapons were changed to be an flat upgrade instead of trading accuracy for damage. They get 1 fewer hit from the spirit blades, but in the aggregate it works out because now they can benefit from Nadirite Weapons.

Ossiarch Bonereapers were designed to ignore a lot of rules. Their general structure is very different and they either ignore or replace the rules with something else. A lot of these ideas were rather clearly testbeds for 3rd edition. First among their kind, the Mortis Praetorians are Orpheon Katakros’ personal army. Disciplined and effective even by the standards of their brethren, these peerless conquerors rely on tactics as much as might to secure victory on the battlefield. The Rules Both Nagash and Arkhan know all the spell lores from this book when in a Bonereapers army but Nagash no longer simply knows every Death Wizard’s spells on the field.

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Big changes here – the self-proclaimed Supreme Lord of the Undead has been completely rewritten conceptually. Some things have stayed the same, he still casts up to 8 spells that degrades down to 4 through the damage table and he’s still a Warmaster that knows all the spells of the army you take him in, and hand of dust is the same. Everything else has changed. Nightmare Predator has received a buff, for some reason, being able to be cast 12″ away rather than 6″, and moving 8″ with fly rather than 2d6″, all for lowering the casting value down to 5. It’s an offensive weapon, dealing D3 mortal wounds to any unit it moves over, and dealing another D3 to a chosen unit on a 2+, or D6 on a roll of a 6. There’s no more extra damage against a chosen hero, but the damage in general is higher, and it no longer disappears if your victim hero dies. With the guaranteed higher movement this thing can reliably deal 4d3 mortal wounds a turn across an enemy army, which is a damn good deal if ever we saw one, all for the low low cost of 40 points. Soulstealer Carrion Your basic infantry unit here, and they are GREAT at holding up threats. Their Nadrite Weapon ability gives them exploding 6s, and their command ability gives them unmodifiable saves. Put your Boneshaper behind them, and they’ll rarely move. 4. Immortis Guard Steve: Looking at some of the examples you’ve given above, can you see any common play styles or particular archetypes within the armies? Both are now allowed to cast Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt multiple times, which is a huge buff for Nagash who would often run out of useful spells to cast when at high health.

The Crafter Gems: Basically a reservoir of 3 wounds you can use to heal the Boneshaper, once they’re used up, they’re gone. A more surefire way to heal your Boneshaper without wasting your Boneshaper’s ability, or holding for a 4+ on the Artisan’s key.Guardian Reavesoul: Turns Deathless Warriors to a 5+ and in addition, once per battle you can destroy the artefact to autopass a Deathless Minions roll. The 5+ is solid and being able to give yourself a last out if your hero would otherwise be killed. Hatred of the Dead: Add 1 to hit rolls for melee weapons if the opponent isn’t a DEATH unit. While normally I’d recommend this, you’re already hitting on 3+s and the army has so many ways to gain bonuses to hit, I can’t see taking this over something else. It’s also wasted if your opponent is also DEATH which may not be an issue if you know who you’re fighting, but in a tournament setting, could leave you with nothing.

Soul Energy: Reroll all casting, dispelling and unbinding rolls for this general, but suffer a mortal wound. This is awesome, healing is fairly easy to come by in this army, so the wound wont hurt you, and being just about guaranteed to get a spell of or deny your opponent is well worth the risk. Don’t forget you still get Deathless Warriors so you may not even get hurt. Their bodies are sculpted from the ensorceled bones of their enemies and animated by souls as artfully crafted as their physical forms. They are Death itself, given form and purpose.So terrifying is the reputation of the Mortis Praetorians that it reduces the Bravery of nearby foes – nasty! That’s right, you didn’t lose access to your old Command abilities. Basically all of them returned intact and unlike other command abilities you can still use them multiple times in a turn. The issuer and receiver must be different each time, but you can still, say issue Unstoppable Advance onto several units for that +3″ of movement. Oathbreaker Curse: Whenever your opponent gains a command point, roll a die, on a 6 they lose it. Pretty damn good, while a 6 is a risky proposition, every time it works will hurt your opponent badly, and armies that generate a lot of CP like Gloomspite Gitz will be hurt more by this. This is a powerful legion. Essentially it makes all your units even more hardy, which makes it good for lower model count armies who need every model to last. Once they’re on a point, they will be hard to remove.